₦airaland Forum

Armanipounds:
It's now, I see this protest by these idiots like Sowore and Deji Adeyanju has political colorations or undertone! The military should desperse those idiots trying desperately to hug the limelight when the occasion doesn't require such grandstanding! Sowore should be thrown into a federal prison because his moves are now begining to undermine the Federal government! I'm not an APC man either I'm I a PDP man but the truth ought to be told about the likes of this Sowore!

Lekki massacre is not a reason for ground standing... where's your brain? Sharing country with you is so unfortunate! �

splashbaby:
This man lost his right to peaceful protest without sentiments when he contested the presidential election and lost.

Buhari and his stupid people should not make him an hero by arresting him. Its better they just ignore him.

This is a fallacy...there is no such law in our constitution otherwise President Buhari would have been disqualified. Don't be an ignorant

EndYahoo:
When he knew his Revolution Now protest failed woefully. He decided to hijack this protest. Foolish man. It is unconstitutional to restrict other citizen's right to freedom of Movement. A breach of our laws to deface public property. Attention seeker oshi

The court you're taking Sowore to for infringement of your right to movement would prolly call you dumb for not realizing that civil disobedience is part of your responsibility as a citizen. You can take alternative route if you can't join the protest. In your brain, your movement is more important than the reasons they're protesting. So Lekkimassacre is not a good reason to protest? Stolkhom syndrome have finished you. �

TecM0:
Haven't I ignored you enough?!

Ok I see you crave my response, it's simple and straightforward if you find a comment stupid to you no point quoting it and looking for a cyber fight, make your own unstupid comments

This is what mannered and cultured people do


.

youre on public forum, learn to think before you type anything. It saves you from being called a fool.

slawormiir:
damnnn niggarrrr
Isoright
Sowore is fighting for his own interests

you have poor sense of judgement with this you opinion. Are we in all honesty doing perfectly well as a nation? Sowore's interest as how? I will pick him over these clueless idiots in power!�

alexpumpin:
If the info above is true, then we are in a long ride with present government inefficiencies.

Nigerian!!! We've been scammed

APC is a scam.

And PDP is not? If we don't vote out the failed establishment,we will remain stagnant. You see Sowore or any other guys should get supported next election. We have to be ignore the so called Leaders or elder state men and gag them to make our votes count. We will force them!

INTEGRITYA1:
Nice one.

I've also pictured with Peter Rufai.

Dodo mayana himself! You guys resembles...are you family?

NothingDoMe:
So you actually believe that any sane individual will put billions inside dirty carton boxes/envelop wrappings to carry through international airport? Through the scanners?

You people should leave me abeg.

They do this everyone to do eye service. I don't know why they always try to prove a point that they are fighting corruption. They're never transparent about anything.

Righteousness89:
Breaking news: Pelosi cannot Remove President Trump From office..

She's trying so hard to remove the POTUS. In my own opinion,why can't the president ask for investigation of the said Joe Biden? Is he above the law cos he is an opposition? The Democrats are acting like secret cult members. That's a fact!�

jaxxy:
Ure confused hate for America is blinding u to the real threat and terror in the world. So it’s only America that’s tells lies Russia, Iran and China don’t tell lies right? Keep deceiving urself, hope u know Ure supporting a country that kills thousands of its own citizens for protesting. What do u think they will do to you if u ever cross their path? U think Iran is ur frnds or what or they care about u and the world?

Give any of those countries ultimate power and u will know how terrible the world can be, they will do 100times worse than the us. Bt in God we Trust

I prefer America to remain in the super power status,none of Iran, Russia or even China can do better than US. Others are terrible nation's. Check their history.

Slawormir:
Damnnnnn niggarrr

Fuckkking trump
Just apologize to Iran you Moda fuckkker

Soleimani was supposed to meet with irag prime minister in Baghdad to discuss about security and peace talks
Trump should apologize
Killing a government official of a sovereign nation just because you have intelligent report that he is aiding terrorists is bad. Another country top commander for that matter!
And no evidence to show soleimani was about to launch an imminent terror campaign

Then you know nothing about Quasim Suilemani.
Read oh! He is a warlord as said. Trump have the balls to do who W Bush first identified as terrorist. The history is there,he started hesbollah the terrible terror group.

I had to share so we can all debate about it.


Source: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10215632692556978&id=1431267590

Let Us Rethink The Border Closure
~Tosin Adeoti

A Yoruba proverb says, “When rain falls continuously and refuses to stop, we have no control over whose father it will drench.”

This aptly captures the present stance of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government on the closure of the Nigerian land borders. He continues to enact policies which causes Nigerians untold hardship and sufferings. As these policies continue, we do not know the next Nigerian who will bear the brunt.

In August 2019, after announcing to the world that Nigeria has achieved “full food security”, Nigeria initiated a partial border closure to stop illegal smuggling of rice, and other goods, across the borders. In October 2019, the comptroller-general of the Nigerian Customs Service, Hameed Ali, announced a total shutdown in trade across Nigeria’s land borders — including goods that had been moving legally (1).

Since the total shutdown, there have been several opinions on the merits and demerits of this action. A lot of people point to Nigeria’s trade deficit among its West African neighbours, calling out these countries for sabotaging Nigeria in its quest for food sufficiency and export promotion. However, can we please stand back and just take a look at the data…

- — — — — — — — — — -

NIGERIA EXPORTS VS IMPORTS…

According to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2018 Nigeria imported goods worth N74.7 billion from its West African neighbours (2), and exported N1.04 trillion (3). In other words, officially, Nigeria exports about 14 times more than it imports. Nigeria exports petroleum products, cocoa, oil seeds, fruits, tobacco, aluminium, plastics, etc. The Lee Group, for instance, produces 1.2 million pairs of slippers per day, the bulk of them being exported to other West African countries (4).

How then did we come up with the belief that Nigeria is being shortchanged by its neighbours? Perhaps because the illegal trade activities from smuggling across the borders is unaccounted for. In truth, goods like rice, textiles, alcohol, etc are being smuggled across the borders to Nigeria.

However, it’s important to note that just as goods are smuggled into the country, goods are also smuggled out to our neighbours. Goods like petrol, yams, palm oil, etc are being smuggled out of the country. With Nigeria said to be smuggling petrol worth N2 billion daily alone (5), this amounts to over N500 billion worth of exports. Leather goods like clothes, bags and shoes from Aba, Onitsha and Alaba are daily smuggled via land to as far away as Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. All these are not captured through the formal channels.

If we get our acts right, we can plow some of these funds into our national purse via customs duties.

My point is, even accounting for the illicit trade activities, Nigeria still exports multiples of its imports. The argument that the borders are closed because we spend scarce foreign currency on imports via West African land routes has never been tenable. Let’s quash the myth that we import more than we export forever.

- — — — — — — — — — -

HOW BENEFICIAL IS THE BORDER SHUTDOWN?

With the total shutdown of the border, Nigerian businesses in need of raw materials for production are unable to access them. The Lee Group is no longer able to send its goods across the land borders due to the shutdown. As usual, it’s the small businesses that are being affected the most. Daily on Social Media, business owners bemoan their inability to keep their export businesses alive.

Even though the sea option is available for export, many Nigerian exporters including Cadbury and Dangote Group are reluctant to use it due to its high cost, as land movement has been calculated to be cheaper (6).

Because the border shutdown is also in contravention of ECOWAS protocol which states that there should be no barriers to intra-community trade and movement, ECOWAS has started to decline Nigerian goods coming from the sea and airways (7).

There have been reports of retaliations against Nigerians living in other West African countries. For instance, the Ghana Union of Trade Association (GUTA) recently shut down about 70 Nigerian-owned businesses in Ghana (. GUTA had earlier stated that it was unfair for the Nigerian government to restrict access to goods from Nigeria seeing that this affects Ghanaian businesses depending on them. GUTA claims that 100 trucks of goods belonging to Ghanaians are locked up in Nigeria.
How did we get to a point when we can no longer live in harmony with our neighbours?

Even more striking, this week, the National Bureau of Statistics released inflation figures for October 2019. As a result of the partial border closure in August, higher food prices have pushed up the annual inflation to 11.61% (9). For perspective, historically during this period of the year food prices are usually at their lowest due to harvest. We thus recorded the worst October since 2009 in terms of food prices.

We can expect that the figures for November and December would be higher both in terms of food prices and inflation as a result of the total shutdown in October.

The GDP Report for the third quarter of 2019 came out while writing this (10). The Trade sector contracted by -1.45%. It contracted under the period July to September. The sector has been in free fall since the beginning of this year, meaning the sector is effectively in recession. Shockingly, we are still digging. I leave it to your imagination what the contraction would be for the fourth quarter, October to December 2019.

In a bid to help the people (well, that’s if helping the people is the goal), these policies have made life much more difficult for them.

- — — — — — — — — — -

IS BORDER CLOSURE THE SOLUTION TO SMUGGLING?

In the past, I have written about our misplaced obsession with rice and import bans generally. But could there be any merit to the total shutdown of our land borders as the country is presently constituted?

Nigeria with a land mass of 4,000 square kilometre coverage has only 84 approved land border posts, yet is battling with illegal border openings of more than 1,400 (11). In Ogun state alone, there are 83 illegal routes. With only 17,500 employees to man the land borders across the country (12), closing the 84 borders is virtually a waste of time.

How does closing the legal border posts lead to the closure of the over 1,400 illegal routes? How does the border shutdown fix the grossly understaffed Customs service?

The Customs service is not just understaffed, it has a reputation of being widely corrupt. Over the years, the service has been marred in numerous corruption and fraud scandals. An undercover investigation by The Cable in 2015 concluded that the Customs Service operates a corruption-tolerant system, renaming the agency, ‘Nigeria’s Customs of corruption, bribery and forgery’ (13). Customs officials have over the years been fingered in aiding smugglers to circumvent goods passage through official channels from neighbouring countries. It was only in June 2019 that the Customs authorities remarked, “…some of our officers are useless, they disregard their responsibility… [having] tendencies of working outside the system…” (14)

Seeing these, should the focus be on totally shutting down the borders or making it less lucrative to smuggle goods?

According to the law of demand and supply, closing the legal borders and making smuggled goods more expensive at the destination only help to increase the demand for smuggling.

- — — — — — — — — — -

BUT BORDER CLOSURE MADE CHINA GREAT…

In defending the borders closure, Customs boss, Hameed Ali pointed to China, “China…closed their borders…for 40 years to the whole world and today they are great China. Don’t you want to be great Nigeria?” (15)

There is no greater Chinese history revisionism than this. The rise of China is well documented and none of it has attributed its greatness to shut off. If anything, the period of China’s shut off from the world led to the death of 56 million Chinese, according to Chinese historian Yu Xiguang (16). Policies during this era like the Great Leap Forward led to drastic decline in food output which caused tens of millions of death in the Great Chinese Famine.

In fact, the beginning of the prosperity of China led by Deng Xiaoping in 1978 is aptly called Opening of China (17).

Where did the Colonel get his history from? Or is he prophesying for North Korea?

- — — — — — — — — — -

IN CLOSING…

People and businesses are suffering as a result of these ill-thought-through policies, and it is unwise to refuse to listen to entreaties on policies negatively affecting the people. For what it’s worth, you do not burn down a house to kill a rat.

The Nigerian government has announced that the borders will only be opened on January 31, 2020 (18). Whatever gains are made at the end of this period will be insignificant to the losses that would have been made through the decline in the standard of living of the citizens, worsening health of businesses, and the lack of goodwill towards the nation.

More saddening, this action would not curb smuggling going forward seeing that the underlying incentives for the sabotage are not being addressed.

With so much of documented history at our fingertips, it is unforgivable to refuse to learn…and open the borders NOW.

You just came up with that to confuse yourself. Any citizen can lead a protest

Slawormir:
You are real niggarrr
As a real niggarrr

I can easily say sowore don't know what he has put his hand into


How does opposition lead a revolution?
Revolution and uprising are for people who are apolitical
If you are into politics or an opposition and you want to lead a revolution it is gonna be seen as MUTINY

Same Moda fiuckkers that destroyed Jonathan now wants freedom

I want to sell, make me an offer I can't ignore. Will sell this thing today!

Wow! your daughter Is indEed beautiful @@Lalastuiclala
She will grow Up to be a great person in Jesus name!

midolian:
Did I just read Abdulfatai Ahmed of Kwara is willing to pay?

This scammer could not pay 18000, he is faking willingness to pay #30000. Since the approval of #18,000 minimum wage, Kwara has been paying #8,500.

May undiluted natural thunder continue to strike him and his godfather, Saraki from now till their dying day!

Amen! Useless lots!

Deomovies:
Good development right? Meanwhile, you can get Latest and Top Rated hundreds of Movies and Series in HD quality into your External drives and PCs at affordable prices. Lagosians, please help a bro today by patronizing, that's the best gift for Movies Junkies.

Where are located and can I get all game of thrones and all prison break?

Sowore won my heart since last year when he decided to run for the presidency, so brilliant and level headed! ☺

Moderator, please take down this false news! �

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Everything works, clean in and out.
Ac works
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Alloy wheel covers
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Super fast car!
Please contact me on 08063571680 if you are a serious buyer! Am in Lagos

Am glad to see that my President is going places! Look, Omoyele will win this year election. Mark my words. Take it back! Action! AAC action!

BLACKdagger:
This is a sentimental trash and u know it.
Anyways u can make urslef feel better all u want.
But just know that Sowore ain't going nowhere.
He should go win his local government chairman first..
Goodnight

you lack good sense of judgements!

sanusijoyjoy:
we can not just vote for him because he is a youth... He sometimes talk like an opportunist.. he should tell us what he have for us and not fighting cabals and yabing cabals.. sometimes he includes propaganda instead of being transparent..

You are very funny for saying this! He has mentioned proudly what he will do for the country but did you care to listen?
SPICER IT
That's Sowore's agenda
SECURITY =Employing the use of technology in surveillance and gattering intelligence. Sacking service chieves in the military
POWER = power supply will be increased to 24,000 Mw through solar farms in the North and clean coal technology in the east.
INDUSTRY =

The document is online, go check it out yourself. He also explain how he would raise money to fund the massive budget. Look, he can win the election if we use our senses. People that would vote for Buhari and Atiku are in the same demographics and that means their votes are divided. Therefore, it's possible for a 3rd force to emerge!

vioment:
kpunkwem. I'll rather throw the vote in the lagoon than vote for incompetence or planned thievery.

No doubt, we go chop dem money for their rallies i mean d old hags. Nigeria must grow and be in its rightful progressive trend. Not these egoistic fools.

yes now, after all, it's our money! �

vioment:
It will be a vote of conscience. I am in between ezekwesili and sowore, i hope they combine quick. For now, i say ezekwesili be the vice because sowore dun start the race since, let him be given the opportunity.


No more godfadaism, no more planned thievery, no more turn by turn stupidity, no more disrespecting Nigeria from the so called leaders.

For these candidates, i say when you win and shock these old magas, I want you to embrace the security forces by increasing their salaries to 300 dollars each month, then pay salaries, focus on infrastructure, and declare your intentions for good friendly business laws.

Sowore is the man for the job! Smart and articulate. His agenda is affecting the political ecology! The old people should be ignored.

mrvitalis:
This guy pulls more crowed than sowore and the PT guy but the media hardly show him

Big lies! Have you even check any of Sowores rally?

5thElement:
really? looollllllll.

I guess you are saying this because he's soft spoken and looks gentle. this is so hilarious.

go on YouTube and type So wore embarrasses minister in New York then come back and give us feedback.

That's the injustice you were informed about. I watched the clip... We indulge these politicians too much. The video you saw was 2011 when ministers would travel out of the country to give independent day speech instead of staying at home to abreast the nation what they have achieved.
Now, we have a choice... Stick with the old guys and their corrupt ways or Sowore. As for me, my choice of Sowore is clear!

ajayiopy:
SOWORE IS THE ANSWER,BUT WE ALL KNOW NIGERIAN

Since we know Sowore is smart and all. Then let's support him first... We might win it for him. Or we use our vote to encourage him this time. We can't continue to support incompetent and corrupt old political elites.

People that support Sowore are smart people who are passionate about this nation! Kudos to Duncan Mighty. I respect the guy!